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20101129

Crime reports Nov 28 2010

Pretoria – Six-year-old Zane Visser hid in his father's Land Rover after attackers had shot his father through the windscreen and then dragged his dad to their smallholding house at Donkerhoek, east of Pretoria. After the three armed black male attackers assaulted George Visser and his partner Zelda Keulder with firearms, they also dragged the terrified boy from the vehicle.”They kept their firearms pointed at us… I started praying out loud," said Keulder, 36, on Sunday outside the Pretoria hospital where bullets were removed from Visser’s shoulder. “One black attacker told me that I could pray even louder because we wouldn't see tomorrow." Nothing was robbed. Police are not investigating attempted double-murder: only a ‘house robbery’. http://www.news24.com/SouthAfrica/News/Robbers-Pray-it-wont-help-20101129

A 61-year-old country club manager from Port Elizabeth was killed in an attempted hijacking, Eastern Cape police said on Tuesday. Walmer Country Club manager Jan Gerrit Hoekstra was on his way to the bank on Monday around 10am, when he was attacked on 9th Avenue in Walmer, said Captain Sandra Janse van Rensburg. “A shot was fired by the suspect who tried to hijack his Opel Astra and he sped away. His car hit another motor vehicle slightly, he swerved to the side and hit a tree on the corner of 8th Avenue and Heugh Road. “The incident was first treated as an accident scene, until paramedics noticed that he had a gunshot wound in his upper body while they were treating him. He later died on the scene,” Janse van Rensburg said. She said nothing was taken from Hoekstra as his money and other valuables were found in the car. Police were investigating, said Janse van Rensburg. -http://www.iol.co.za/news/crime-courts/man-killed-in-attempted-hijacking-1.875715

2010-11-21 Kobus Pretorius reports from Durbanville. An Eight-four-year old frail resident of a retirement home opposite Durbanville High School was strangled to death inside her bed on November 20 2010. A nurse found the body of Mrs Cornelia Kilian, 84, in House Aristea in Queen Street. “The nurse noticed that the burglar-bars were torn off a window,’ said sergeant Bernice Laäs-Bezuidenhout. Her cottage was ‘overturned inside’ but it’s not clear whether anything was robbed. The murder must have taken place between Saturday 22:00 and Monday at noon. The frail old woman was last seen alive on Saturday-evening. She lived alone and is survived by two daughters. The SAPS brought in trauma-councillors to talk to the deeply upset residents – and they were also adviced that if they wanted to leave the home for a while and stay with their family and children for a while, they should do so, as it would help them come to terms with the murder of their friend, said manager of the complex Mr Willem Agenbag. He said the home has excellent security and is monitored with closed-circuit TV 24/7 – however the cottages where Mrs Kilian was murdered were not included in the security system and they want to change that at once. The murder-weapon and the number of attackers are not yet known.http://www.dieburger.com/Suid-Afrika/Nuus/Vrou-in-tehuis-vermoor-20101121

Nov 23 2010 Magda Cracknell writes on her Facebook page “White Genocide, did you Know? ‘--- “It is with great sadness that I want to ask you all to pray for the badly injured “crime” victim Mr Chris Bronkhorst. The 67-year-old partially-disabled Afrikaner pensioner was tortured with melting plastic and whipped repeatedly with a sjambok during a vicious daytime attack in his Walkerville smallholding home on September 29, 2010 by four young black males. The traumatic attack has caused a severe shock to his body and he has lost his zest for life. He has a permanent nurse looking after him physically but emotionally he needs upliftment and it's very understandable, considering what this man had to endure. On 20 Nov 2010 he was taken back to the Intensive Care Unit with a stroke and complications. Mr Bronkhorst was severely tortured – a lot of the details were omitted from the press reports. His Wife Hester and sister in law Helena appreciates your support in prayer.http://www.beeld.com/Suid-Afrika/Nuus/Rowers-martel-en-slaan-verlamde-67-20101102

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Nov 24 2010 – NAUDEEVILLE, FREE STATE - Afrikaans schoolboy Riaan Vermeulen (16) saved the lives of his family when he overpowered a home-invader, got the attacker’s gun away from him after his father was shot in both legs – and then shot and injured the attacker while they were grappling. The family also told police that the attackers must have drugged them somehow because the family had suddenly fallen asleep in front of the TV before they were attacked. Now, reports Beeld newspaper, the young man is being terrorised by the criminal fraternity. Marisa Phillips of Volksblad newspaper writes from Welkom that the youth’s mom Jackie, of Naudéville, said three more attempts were made to break into their home and people have been drawing red marks on a tree in front of their home to terrorise them. The family is still in Bloemfontein however to be near the family patriarch, Riaan, who is in hospital for surgery after he was shot. A neighbour phoned Mrs Vermeulen to warn her that strange people had tried to get into the Vermeulen property on Saturday. ‘My neighbour’s husband yelled at those people to get out. The next morning they also saw the red cross scrawled on the tree and also that plastic bottles had been placed as field-writing markers atop our gate”. The security alarms were tripped thrice since the Sept 19 2010 incident. Security company officials have posted a guard inside their erf and the police are also watching the house. Mrs Vermeulen said her son was still undergoing trauma-counselling and because of all the stress, would be unable to complete his exams. “He is still very emotional but said if placed in the same situation he’d do it again.’ The home-invader (described as a ‘robber’ although nothing was robbed) who was shot and injured by the young man was found collapsed on a neighbouring property and has been in critical condition at the Bongani hospital since that day, under police guard.http://www.volksblad.com/Suid-Afrika/Nuus/Inbrekers-teister-glo-jong-held-nadat-hy-gesin-red-20101121http://www.volksblad.com/Suid-Afrika/Nuus/Seun-16-skiet-inbreker-met-eie-wapen-nadat-hy-pa-wond-20101120

Mr Hendrik Mills, on behalf of the private Environmental Protection Association, has laid criminal charges against 2 mining companies at the Ermelo SAPS – one being Coal of Africa at its Mooiplaats mine outside Ermelo. The continued media reports on the degradation of the environment and pollution caused by industry and more specific, certain mining companies, caused the Association to lay criminal charges. Government departments have shown their inability to effectively police the industry. Administrative actions against such companies do not have the necessary deterrent effect and despite criminal transgressions by some companies government still does not pursue criminal charges. Companies must realise that they are not above the law, the law applies equally to everyone. They may be able to afford to pay administrative fines but facing the possibility of going to jail, having the assets and profits of the company seized and its mining rights withdrawn may have the necessary deterrent effect. Aggrieved persons can contact the association for assistance at 0828079278. http://blogs.beeld.com/Elise_WatOpAarde/iets-op-engels

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KILLER OF ROBIN McGREGOR, PUBLISHER/OWNER OF ‘WHO OWNS WHOM’ ON AUG 12 2008 – SENTENCED TO 30 YEARS IN PRISON

Cape Times. November 23 2010 By A’Eysha Kassiem Judge Nathan Erasmus of the Cape High Court sentenced Thomas, the convicted murderer of Cape Town publisher Robin McGregor to a 30-year prison term. He would be free after his 60th birthday. The popular publisher was murdered in 2008 in his Tulbagh home. His Mercedes-Benz and two safes were stolen. Judge Erasmus said: “Mr McGregor was killed in a brutal manner. He was stabbed with a knife multiple times and dragged across the floor in his corridor. The question is: ‘What kind of man does that?’ Especially with your background?” Judge Erasmus was referring to the fact that Thomas seemed to come from a “good home” and had also been able to study further and get a post-high school certificate. The murder had clearly shaken both the Tulbagh community and the Saron community, where Thomas was from. “It was not just because it was McGregor (who was killed), but because of the type of murder that was committed,” he said, referring to the brutality of the crime. “You are too young to understand where we come from as a society. “We are trying to build a nation and one of the biggest problems in terms of our democracy is crime. It undermines what we stand for,” said Judge Erasmus. Thomas claimed that his involvement in the murder was because he was “put under duress by members of the 28s gang” and said he was innocent. Judge Erasmus said it was necessary to underline the seriousness of the crime with the sentence. McGregor’s daughter, Elizabeth, said that nothing could bring her father back. “But I feel that the justice system has been good to us and we feel lucky,” she said, before bursting into tears. “I’m glad that it’s over.” aeysha.kassiem@inl.co.za - Cape Times http://www.iol.co.za/news/south-africa/western-cape/mcgregor-s-killer-spared-life-1.875690

Retired SA police officer Lukas Swart ‘s book “Winning in farm-attacks’ (in Afrikaans only), explains the secret language of the African field-signs which are often placed around SA homes by criminal gangs while watching your place - long before their hit-squads plan any attacks on your family. Often your home is watched for many weeks to analyse your movements before these attacks. The gang members communicate with African field-signs, which involve a large variety of colour-coded objects. Targetted victims however can prevent attacks if they know the secret language – but only if you learn to read and interpret them correctly: and know what to do when spotting them. Importantly, this book also teaches you to never remove these signs nor to go and study them up close – because the hit squad could be in the near vicinity, hiding, watching your place, testing its defences – and then be able to kill you on the spot… The author, a retired SA police officer with extensive knowledge of the secret art of African field-writing, is often hired as a private forensic investigator. He writes that ‘many people are under the impression that as long as they can speak an African language, they would be able to understand enough to be forewarned against armed criminals planning to attack them.” But people should also learn this secret way in which Africans communicate with each other all across the continent…

The term "genocide" was coined by legal scholar Raphael Lemkin in 1943, writing:

'Generally speaking, genocide does not necessarily mean the immediate destruction of a nation, except when accomplished by mass killings of all members of a nation. It is intended rather to signify a coordinated plan of different actionsaiming at the destruction of essential foundations of the life of national groups, with the aim of annihilating the groups themselves.

The objectives of such a plan would be the disintegration of the political and social institutions, of culture, language, national feelings, religion, and the economic existence of national groups, and the destruction of personal security, liberty, health, dignity and lives of the members of such groups... '